Rev. Lauren Chaffee entered full-time ministry in 1980, at age 25, serving two small churches in a rural community outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. Although that was more than two decades after the United Methodist Church had granted full clergy rights for women, Chaffee says she has experienced both “explicit and subtle forms of exclusion and abuse.” There were anonymous notes sent to her home or left on her windshield. Some cited biblical reasons why women should not be ordained, and there were personal attacks on her potential as a pastor. Chaffee shares from those early years that she felt demeaned by inappropriate remarks with sexual undertones, and that she was touched in ways parishioners would never touch a male pastor. “In one of my churches, a petition was circulated within the first six months of my arrival, and signed by people who had not stepped foot in the church in years, but were recruited to sign by a few very opinionated individuals who wanted me out,” Chaffee confides. “When I became a single mom just after my son’s second birthday, the demands of parenting him became another thing for parishioners to object to.” In 1993 Rev. Chaffee felt so discouraged with the church that she stepped back from ministry. She came to San Francisco to pursue a graduate degree in Organizational Development at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Consulting would be a vocation where her gender was less likely to be such a hurdle, and she would have more time for parenting, she reasoned. Eventually, as she developed consulting connections within the United Methodist Church in Northern California, she accepted an invitation to lead a congregation in Redwood City, and has continued to pastor since that time. Although some of the anti-women attitudes have persisted, even in Bay Area churches, she believes the OD studies have enhanced her ministry skills and enabled her to be a more effective leader. “I know that the churches and people I served will never be the same, having had a single-mom-clergywoman for a pastor. I have a great deal of compassion for others who are excluded from society and the church on the basis of qualities and circumstances not of their own making.” That resolve, she maintains, gives her ministry the strong social justice element consistent with the history of Bethany. Chaffee looks forward to supporting Bethany as it is renovated and grows as a congregation serving the neighborhood and the greater community.   Back to top